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Ever Wonder Who the Inspiration Was for Mick Jagger’s “Brown Sugar?”

November 12, 2012 | Christelyn Karazin |

We all know the chorus, Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good? Most of us knew Mick Jagger was talking about a black woman. And his muse was none other than singer, Marsha Hunt.

Their love grew in 1969–not exactly fertile ground for swirlers to thrive. So he wrote her secret love letters. Then Brown Sugar hit the airwaves in 1971 and was a smash hit. Oh to be a fly on the wall who can read, so I could get a chance of what those love letters contained during the Sotheby’s auction for them on December 12 in London.

Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s books specialist, said: “These beautifully-written and lyrical letters from the heart of the cultural and social revolution of 1969 frame a vivid moment in cultural history.

“Here we see Mick Jagger not as the global superstar he has become, but as a poetic and self-aware 25-year-old with wide-ranging intellectual and artistic interests.”

Written from a film set in the Australian Outback just after the Rolling Stones’ landmark Hyde Park concert, the documents provide an insight into the cultural events of the time, including the first moon landing.
Dr Heaton added: “They provide a rare glimpse of Jagger that is very different from his public persona: passionate but self-contained, lyrical but with a strong sense of irony.”

Hunt is the mother of Mick Jagger’s first child, whom reports say he treated shabbily until recently, when the Rolling Stone singer is seen staying by his daughter on her wedding day.

So why is Mick Jagger’s former object of affection selling the letters now?

She needs the money for house repairs in her home in France.

Curious about the Brown Sugar lyrics?

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he’s doing alright
Hear him with the women just around midnight

Brown sugar
How come you taste so good?
Brown sugar
Just like a young girl should

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wonderin’ where it’s gonna stop
House boy knows that he’s doing alright
You shoulda heard him just around midnight

Brown sugar
How come you taste so good, now?
Brown sugar
Just like a young girl should, now

Get along, brown sugar
How come you taste so good, baby?
Got me feelin’ now, brown sugar
Just like a black girl should

I bet your mama was a tent show queen
Had all the boyfriends at sweet sixteen
I’m no schoolboy but I know what I like
You shoulda heard me just around midnight

Brown sugar
How come you taste so good, baby?
Brown sugar
Just like a young girl should, yeah

I said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah
How come you, how come you taste so good?
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah”

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